OWEN GLYNDWR [OWEN AP GRIFFITH VYCHAN, LORD OF GLYNDWRDWY].
(Vol. vii., p. 205.)
The arms referred to by Mr. Woodward are those on the great seal and privy seal of "the irregular and wild Glendower," as Prince of Wales,
attached to two documents deposited in the Hotel Soubise, at Paris, in the Cartons I. 623. and I. 392., relating, it is supposed, to the furnishing of troops to the Welsh prince by Charles VI., king of France. Casts of these seals were taken by the indefatigable Mr. Doubleday, to whom the Seal department of the British Museum, over which he presides, is so much indebted; and impressions were exhibited by Sir Henry Ellis at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, on the 12th of December, 1833. Engravings of them, accompanied by the following notice, were communicated by Sir Henry to the Archæologia, and will be found in that publication, vol. xxv. plate lxx. fig. 2, 3. page 616., and ibid. pp. 619, 620.:
"The great seal has an obverse and reverse. On the obverse Owen is represented, with a bifid beard, very similar to Rich. II., seated under a canopy of Gothic tracery: the half body of a wolf forming the arms of his chair on each side: the background is ornamented with a mantle semée of lions, held up by angels. At his feet are two lions. A sceptre is in his right hand, but he has no crown. The inscription: 'Owenus ... Princeps Wallie.' On the reverse of the great seal Owen is represented on horseback, in armour; in his right hand, which is extended, he holds a sword, and with his left his shield, charged with, Quarterly, four lions rampant; a drapery, probably a kerchief de plesaunce, or handkerchief won at a tournament, pendant from his right wrist. Lions rampant also appear upon the mantle of the horse. On his helmet, as well as on his horse's head, is the Welsh dragon [passant]. The area of the seal is diapered with roses. The inscription on this side seems to fill the gap upon the obverse 'Owenus Dei gratia ... Wallie.'
"The privy seal represents the four lions rampant towards the spectator's left, on a shield, surmounted by an open coronet [crown]: the dragon[[3]] of Wales, as a supporter, on the dexter side; on the sinister, a lion. The inscription seems to have been 'Sigillum Oweni Principis Wallie.' No impression of this seal is probably now to be found either in Wales or England. Its workmanship shows that Owen Glyndwr possessed a taste for art beyond the types of the seals of his predecessors."
The dragon is a favourite figure with Cambrian bards; and, not to multiply instances, the following lines may be cited from the poem of the "Hirlas Horn," by Owen Cyfeilioc, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn,—
"Mathraval's[[4]] Lord, the Poet and the Prince,"
father of Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn (the Gwenwen of Sir Walter Scott's Betrothed):—
"A dytwc i Rufut waywrutelyn
Gwin a gwydyr goleu yn ei gylchyn
Dragon Arwystli arwystyl tervyn
Dragon Owein hael o hil Kynvyn[[5]]
Dragon iw dechren ac niw dychryn cat
Cyvlavan argrat cymyw erlyn."
Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales: London,
1801, 8vo., vol. i. p. 265.
"And bear to Grufydd, the crimson-lanced foe,
Wine with pellucid glass around it;
The Dragon of Arwstli, safeguard of the borders,
The Dragon of Owen, the generous of the race of Cynvyn,
A Dragon from his beginning, and never scared by a conflict
Of triumphant slaughter, or afflicting chase."
Gray, whose "Bard" indicates the inspiration with which he had seized the poetry and traditions of the Cymri, thus refers to the red dragon as the cognizance of the Welsh monarchs, in his Triumphs of Owen [ap Griffith, Prince of North Wales]:
"Dauntless, on his native sands,
The Dragon, son of Mona, stands;
In glittering arms and glory dress'd
High he rears his ruby crest."
The dragon and lion have been attributed to the Welsh monarchs, as insignia, from an early period, and the former is ascribed, traditionally, to the great Cadwallader.
In the Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 579. plate xxix. p. 578., are descriptions of engravings of the impressions of two seals appendant to charters of Edward, son of Edward IV., and Arthur, son of Henry VII., as Princes of Wales, the obverse of each bearing three lions in pale passant, reguardant, having their tails between their legs, reflected upon their backs, upon a shield
surmounted by a cap of maintenance: Prince Edward's shield has on each side a lion as a supporter, holding single feathers, with the motto "Ich dien." On Prince Arthur's seal, the feathers are supported by dragons. Thomas William King, Rouge Dragon, in a letter to Sir Samuel Meyrick, dated 4th September, 1841, published in the Archæologia, vol. xxix. p. 408., Appendix, regards the lions on these shields as to the ensigns attributed at the period of the seals to certain Welsh princes, and the dragon as the badge of Cadwallader.
In a MS. (for reference to which I am indebted to the courtesy of Sir Frederick Madden), which was recently sold at Sotheby's, containing translations by Johannes Boerius, presented to Henry, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII., about 1505, there is a beautiful illumination containing the arms of that prince: Quarterly France and England, with the red dragon as the dexter, and the greyhound of the House of York as the sinister, supporter.
"The red fierye dragō beeten upō white and greene sarcenet" was the charge of a standard offered by Henry VII. at St. Paul's, on his entry into London after his victory at Bosworth Field; and this standard was represented on the corner of his tomb, held by an angel (Willement's Regal Heraldry, 4to., London, 1821, p. 57.). The red dragon rampant was assumed as a supporter by Henry VII. in indication of his Welsh descent, and was borne as a supporter, either on the dexter or sinister side of the shield, by all the other English monarchs of the House of Tudor, with the exception of Queen Mary, who substituted for it an eagle: and among the badges attributed to our present sovereign is, in respect of Wales, "a dragon passant, wings elevated gu., upon a mount vert."
It may be assumed, with little doubt, that the colour of the dragon borne by Owen Glyndwr was rouge; and although the colour of the other supporter of his shield, the lion, is not susceptible of such positive inference, it may be conjectured to have been sable, the colour of the lion, the principal charge on his hereditary shield.
To Mr. Woodward's immediate Query as to the blazon—colour of the field and charges—of the arms on these seals, I can afford no direct answer, never having met with any trace of these arms in the extensive collections of Welsh MSS. to which I have had access. These ensigns may have been adopted by Owen as arms of dominion (as those of Ireland by the English sovereigns) on his assumption of the principality of Wales, a suggestion countenanced, if not established, by four lions quarterly ("Quarterly gules and or, four lions rampant, counterchanged") being assigned to Griffith ap Llewelyn (killed April, 28 Hen. III., 1244, in attempting to escape from the Tower), eldest son of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Wales (dead 31st November, 25 Hen. III., 1240), father of the ill-fated and gallant Llewelyn ap Griffith, last sovereign of Wales, slain at Builth, December 10, 8 Ed. I., 1282. Further confirmation is, perhaps, afforded to this suggestion by Owen having, it is understood, vindicated his assumption of the Cambrian throne as heir of the three sovereign dynasties of North Wales, South Wales, and Powys respectively,—of the last, as male representative, through the Lords of Bromfield, of Madoc ap Meredith, the last monarch of that principality; and of the two former as their heir-general, in respect of his mother, Elenor, sister of Owen (ap Thomas ap Llewelyn), Lord, with his paternal uncle, Owen ap Llewelyn ap Owen, of the comot [hundred] of Iscoed, September 20, 1344, Representative paternally of the sovereigns of South Wales, and, by female descent, of those of North Wales[[6]], through Griffith ap Llewelyn above named.
The hereditary arms of Owen's paternal line, the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, are those of his ancestor, Griffith Maelor ap Madoc, of Dinas Bran, Lord of Bromfield, Yale, Chirk, Glyndwrdwy, &c., who died A.D. 1191, viz. "Paly of eight argent and gules, over all a lion rampant sable," thus differenced, apparently, from "The Black Lion of Powys" (Argent a lion rampant sable), the royal ensigns of his father, Madoc ap Meredith, last sovereign Prince of Powys, who died at Winchester in 1160. I am unable to refer to any seal of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, or of the Lords of Bromfield, bearing the family arms of their line; but they are thus given invariably by the Cambrian heralds, and, so far, are susceptible of proof by the most authentic MS. authorities of the Principality. It is, however, remarkable, that the Heraldic Visitations of Wales of Lewis Dwnn, appointed in 1580 Deputy-Herald for all Wales, by Robert Cook Clarenceux, and William Flower Norroy King-at Arms, published in 1846 by the Welsh MSS. Society, contain no pedigree of the house of Glyndwrdwy. Of the descendants, if any, of Owen Glyndwr himself, beyond his children, I am not aware that there is any authentic pedigree, or other satisfactory proof; and there seems to be presumptive evidence that in 12 Henry VI., 1433—a period so recent as nineteen years from the last date, 19th February, 1 Henry V., 1414, on which Owen is ascertained to have been alive (Rymer's Fœdera, ix. p. 330.),—his issue was limited to a daughter and heir,
Alice, wife of Sir John Scudamore, Knt., described in a petition of John, Earl of Somerset, to whom Owen's domains, on his attainder, had been granted by his brother, Henry IV., as
"Un John Skydmore, Chivaler, et Alice sa femme, pretendantz la dite Alice etre file et heir au dit Owyn (Glyndwr)."—Rot. Parl. 12 Hen. VI.
I have not found evidence to show that there were any children of Alice's marriage with Scudamore; and, assuming the failure of her issue, and also the extinction of Owen's other offspring, the representation of the three dynasties—
". . . . . . . the long line
Of our old royalty"—
reverted to that of his only brother, Tudor ap Griffith Vychan, a witness, as "Tudor de Glyndore," in the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, 3rd September, 1386, and then twenty-four years and upwards, who is stated to have been killed under Owen's banner at the battle of Mynydd Pwll-Melyn, near Grosmont, Monmouthshire, fought 11th March, 1405. Tudor's daughter and heir, Lowry [Lady] of Gwyddelwern in Edeirnion, "una Baron. de Edurnyon," became the wife of Griffith ap Einion of Corsygedol, living 1400 and 1415; and from this marriage descend the eminent Merionethshire House of Corsygedol (represented by the co-heirs of the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, Bart., of Mostyn and Corsygedol; namely, his nephew, the Honorable Edward Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn, of Mostyn and Corsygedol, M.P., Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire, and Sir Thomas's sister, Anna Maria, Lady Vaughan, mother of Sir Robert Williames Vaughan, Bart., of Nannau) and its derivative branches, the Yales of Plas-yn-Yale, co. Denbigh, and the Rogers-Wynns of Bryntangor in the same county; the former represented by the Lloyds of Plymog, and the latter by the Hughes's of Gwerclas in Edeirnion, Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, co. Merioneth, and Barons of Edeirnion. These families, co-representatives of the three Cambrian dynasties, all quarter, with the arms of South Wales and North Wales, the ensigns I have referred to as the hereditary bearings of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy. Independently of the adoption of these ensigns in the Welsh MSS. in the British Museum, College of Heralds, and other depositories, it may be mentioned that they are quartered in an ancient shield of the Vaughans of Corsygedol, suspended in the hall of Corsygedol,—one of the finest and most picturesque mansions in the Principality,—and that they appear in the splendid emblazoned Genealogy of the House of Gwerclas, compiled in 1650 by Robert Vaughan, Esq., of Hengwrt, the Camden and Dugdale united of Wales.[[7]] The arms in question are ascribed to the line of Bromfield and Glyndwrdwy, and, as quarterings to the families just named, by Mr. Burke's well-known Armory, the first and, indeed, only work, in conjunction with the Welsh genealogies in that gentleman's Peerage and Baronetage, and Landed Gentry, affording satisfactory, or any approach to systematic and complete, treatment of Cambrian heraldry and family history. Mr. Charles Knight also, highly and justly estimated, no less for a refined appreciation of our historic archæology, than for careful research, adopts these arms as the escutcheon of Owen in the beautiful artistic designs which adorn and illustrate the First Part of the drama of King Henry IV., in his Pictorial edition of Shakspeare. (Histories, vol. i. p. 170.)
The shield of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, as marshalled by Welsh heralds, displays quarterly the arms assigned to their direct paternal ancestors, as successively adopted previous to the period when armorial bearings became hereditary. Thus marshalled, the paternal arms of Owen Glyndwr are as follows: 1st and 4th, "Paly of eight, argent and gules, over all a lion rampant sable," for Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc ap Meredith, Prince of Powys-Fadog; 2nd, "Argent, a lion rampant sable" ("The Black Lion of Powys") for Madoc, Prince of Powys-Fadog, son of Meredith, Prince of Powys, son of Bleddyn, King of Powys; 3rd, "Or, a lion rampant gules," for Bleddyn ap Cyfnfyn, King of Powys.[[8]] None
of these ensigns is referable to a period anterior to that within which armorial bearings are attributed to the Anglo-Norman monarchs.
The lion rampant is common to all branches of the line of Powys; but the bearing peculiar to its last monarch, Madoc ap Meredith, "The Black Lion of Powys," without a difference, has been transmitted exclusively to the Hughes's, Baronial Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, and the other descendants of Owen Brogyntyn, Lord of Edeirnion, younger son of Madoc; of whom, with the exception of the family just named, it is presumed there is no existing male branch. The same arms were borne by Iorwerth Goch, Lord of Mochnant, also a younger son of Madoc; but they are now only borne subordinately in the second quarter by that chief's descendant, Sir John Roger Kynaston of Hardwick, Bart., and by the other branches of the Kynastons; the first quarter having been yielded to the arms of (Touchet) Lord Audley, assumed by Sir Roger Kynaston of Hordley, Knt., after the battle of Blore in 1459, at which Lord Audley is said to have fallen by the hand of Sir Roger. As already stated, Griffith Maelor, Madoc's eldest son, bore the black lion differenced, as did also the twin sons of the latter, viz. Cynric Efell, Lord of Eglwys Egle, ancestor of the distinguished line of Davies of Gwysaney in Flintshire, whose ensigns were "Gules, on a bend, argent, a lion passant sable;" and Einion Efell, progenitor of the Edwards's of Ness Strange, and of other North Wallian families, who bore "Party per fess, sable and argent, a lion rampant counterchanged." The ancestor of the Vaughans of Nannau, Barts.,—Cadwgan (designated by Camden "the renowned Briton"), younger son of Blyddyn, king of Powys, sometime associated in the sovereignty with his elder brother Meredith, exhibited, it is stated, on his banner an azure lion on a golden ground; ensigns transmitted to the early Lords of Nannau and their descendants, with the exception—probably the only one—of the Vaughans of Wengraig and Hengwrt, represented paternally by the Vaughans of Nannau and Hengwrt, Baronets, who, transferring these arms to the second quarter, bear in the first, "Quarterly, or and gules, four lions rampant counterchanged." The Wenwynwyn branch of the dynasty of Powys continued, or at a later period resumed, the red lion rampant on a gold ground, ascribed to Blyddyn ap Cynfyn; and it is not a little interesting, that recently a beautiful silver seal, in perfect preservation, of Hawys Gadarn, heiress of that princely line, who by the gift of Edward II. became the wife of John de Cherlton, was found near Oswestry, representing her standing, holding two shields: the one in her right hand charged with her own arms, the lion rampant; that in the left with those of Cherlton, two lions passant. The legend around the seal is "S'HAWISIE DNE DE KEVEOLOC."
The original seal is now in the Museum of Chester, and was exhibited, I believe, by the Honorary Curator, the Rev. William Massie, at a recent meeting of the Society of Antiquaries. Of this venerable relic I possess an impression in wax; and of the great and privy seals of Owen Glyndwr, beautiful casts in sulphur; and I shall have pleasure in leaving them with the editor of "N. & Q." for the inspection of Mr. Woodward, should that gentleman desire it.
John ap William ap John.
Inner Temple.
March 7, 1853.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
This supporter, and the crest, as also the supporter which I shall mention presently, attached to the respective shields of Arthur Prince of Wales, and of Henry Prince of Wales, sons of Henry VII., is in fact a Wyvern, having, like the dragon, a tail resembling that of a snake, but differing from the dragon in the omission of the two hind legs. The supporter in respect of Wales, afterwards alluded to as assumed by the English monarchs of the House of Tudor, was a dragon strictly.
Mathraval, in the vale of Meifod, in Montgomeryshire, the palace of the sovereigns of Powys, erected by Rhodri Mawr, King of Wales:
"Where Warnway [Vwrnwy] rolls its waters underneath
Ancient Mathraval's venerable walls,
Cyveilioc's princely and paternal seat."
Southey's Madoc.
Cynfyn, father of Bleddyn, King of Powys, by his consort Angharad, Queen of Powys, derived from Mervyn, King of Powys, third son of Rhodri Mawr (the Great), King of all Wales, progenitor of the three Dynasties of North Wales, South Wales, and Powys:
"... chi fu di noi
E de' nostri avi illustri il ceppo vechio."
"His [Owen Glyndwr's] father's name was Gryffyd Vychan: his mother's, Elena, of royal blood, and from whom he afterwards claimed the throne of Wales. She was eldest daughter of Thomas ap Llewelyn ap Owen, by his wife Elinor Goch, or Elinor the Red, daughter and heiress to Catherine, one of the daughters of Llewelyn, last Prince of Wales, and wife to Philip ap Ivor of Iscoed."—A Tour in Wales [by Pennant]: Lond. 4to. 1778, p. 302.
Of this celebrated antiquary, the author of British Antiquities Revived, and other valuable antiquarian works, the friend of Archbishop Ussher, Selden, Sir Simon d'Ewes, Sir John Vaughan, &c., it is observed in the Cambrian Register, "In genealogy he was so skilled, and his knowledge on that subject derived from such genuine sources, that Hengwrt became the Heralds' College of the Principality, and no pedigree was current until it had obtained his sanction."
His MSS. and library, formerly at Hengwrt, have been transferred to Rûg in Edeirnion, the present seat of his descendant, Sir Robert Vaughan of Nannau; and it may be confidently stated, that in variety, extent, rarity, and value, they surpass any existing collection, public or private, of documents relating to the Principality. Many of them are unique, and indispensable for the elucidation of Cambrian literature and antiquities; and their possessor, by entrusting, to some gentleman competent to the task, the privilege of preparing a catalogue raisonnée of them, would confer a public benefit which could not be too highly appreciated.
To the noble collections of Gloddaeth, Corsygedol, and Mostyn, now united at Mostyn, as also to that of Wynnstay, the same observation might be extended.
The golden lion on a red field may have been displayed on the standard of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, but, from analogy to the arms assigned to the English monarchs of a corresponding period, it can, as armorial bearings, be only regarded, it is apprehended, as attributive. Of the armorial bearings of the English monarchs of the House of Normandy, if any were used by them, we are left totally without contemporary evidences. The arms of William the Conqueror, which have been for ages attributed to him and the two succeeding monarchs, are taken from the cornice of Queen Elizabeth's monument, in the north aisle of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster. The arms assigned to Stephen are adopted on the authority of Nicholas Upton, in his treatise De Militari Officio, b. iv. p. 129., printed in 1654. For those of Henry II., there is no earlier authority than the cornice of Queen Elizabeth's monument, and it is on the second seal used by Richard I. after his return from captivity, that, for the first time, we find his shield distinctly adorned with the three lions passant guardant in pale, as they have been borne by subsequent English monarchs. (Willement's Regal Heraldry.)